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Boaters - Please be aware that you share the local waterways with the Florida Manatee. This marine mammal is a large (up to 11 feet long and 2,000 ppounds!) animal which traverses the waters throughout Florida. Boaters can avoid collissions with these gentle giants by going slower, wearing polarized sunglasses, looking for footprints (manatee tail swirls on the water surface) and surfacing snouts, and watching for animals along seagrass beds and shoals. Manatees seek warm water refuge during the cooler winter months and congregate in deep spring fed canals, embayments and the warm water effluent from the power plant on the Caloosahatchee River.